An Ode to Euroflax

by ShannonMay 17, 2010

I have fallen, quite unexpectedly, in love these last few weeks. No, I’m not leaving Stefan for some great, undiscovered new knitwear designer. It’s a fiber I have fallen head over heels for. And that fiber is linen. In particular, Louet’s Euroflax Sport, a yarn that I have admired from afar from years, but never quite gotten to know until very recently. It all started years ago, when I purchased one lone skein of Euroflax Sport in Willow. It was an impulse buy, and that skein has resided in my stash, looking quite lovely, but getting no love, for a very long time.

When we opened Twisted, Euroflax was one of the very first yarns we brought in. There were many colors that I loved, many possible projects that I considered, but it wasn’t until we received this insanely perfect wrap that I decided, finally, to dive into the world of knitting with flax.

I didn’t feel like knitting a big ole rectangle out of the Euroflax, for my own strange reasons, so I logged into that treasure trove of information, Ravelry, and found this sweet little pattern, Buttercup, by Heidi Kirrmaier (Sorren has been knitting one of these out of Hazel Knits, and it is a lovely, simple, and elegant pattern). I grabbed a few skeins of Euroflax in Aqua (ooh, lala, what a gorgeous blue!), and started swatching. I swatched, and swatched, and swatched. I couldn’t seem to get a different gauge, no matter what size needles I used. US4’s, US3’s, US2’s, and still, 5 stitches per inch. Ah, well, I thought, I’ll just make a smaller size.

(It wasn’t until I was about 1/2-way into the project that I realized that, by knitting the Small size, with my gauge, I was going to have the exact same dimensions as if I had knit the medium size. Like Hannibal from the A-Team sez, “I love it when a plan comes together.”)

So here I am, with this gorgeous, simple, aqua-blue summer top, completely finished and washed, and it’s only the middle of May! PLUS, it’s a yarn that you can, and you may need to sit down right now, MACHINE WASH AND DRY! Yeah, you read that right. This yarn likes to be beat up, folks. I see many more Euroflax projects in my future…many more summery tops. Yay!